Seattle Chocolate, based in 1991, practically met its finish only one decade into enterprise after the Nisqually Earthquake destroyed its manufacturing facility.
Jean Thompson, one in all a few dozen of the corporate’s buyers on the time, stepped in to reserve it. She turned the proprietor, salvaging the machines and transferring operations to a different location. Six weeks later, when the CEO give up, she assumed that place too — and by no means regarded again.
Within the greater than twenty years since, the corporate has grown from about 35 to 75 workers, does roughly $20 million in annual income, provides 10% internet earnings to fund initiatives to enhance the lives of cocoa farmers and have become carbon impartial in 2022.
Now the corporate is present process a daring, imaginative rebrand, introduced earlier this month — and altering its title to Maeve.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Maeve
“In different areas, whereas we may get distribution, the shoppers did not pull it off the shelf.”
Thompson had by no means appreciated the title Seattle Chocolate, noting it felt too limiting and regionally tied.  ”The info was there that we did rather well in our personal yard, within the Pacific Northwest,” Thompson explains, “however in different areas, whereas we may get distribution, the shoppers did not pull it off the shelf.”
However the firm had been Seattle Chocolate for over 20 years. Thompson thought the time to revamp its title had come and gone.
Nonetheless, a dialog along with her daughter Ellie Thompson, the corporate’s model supervisor, modified her perspective. “She mentioned, ‘I like Seattle Chocolate, but it surely’s not cool,'” Thompson recollects.
Thompson agreed, and desirous to make the model interesting to new audiences like Gen Z, she got down to give it a makeover.
“ I am an evergreen firm,” Thompson says. “I do not need to flip; I do not need to simply promote the corporate. I need to put money into it in a means that will probably be round endlessly as a result of I feel that is if you actually could make a distinction.”
“[It’s]  this actually whimsical [design], and it virtually takes you to a spot of fantasy.”
Few individuals know that the corporate is woman-owned, so that they wished to guide with a reputation indicating that, Thompson says. Nonetheless, touchdown on the corporate’s new title and branding took a few yr — and wasn’t with out its challenges.
In the end, Thompson labored with three totally different companies on the rebrand. The primary company gave them a reputation that lots of people appreciated, however Thompson wasn’t bought. In the long run, they could not get the trademark, so it was again to the drafting board.
A second company would assist with the model’s new title. Thompson quipped to the staff that the “chocolate goddess” had been searching for her by stopping the trademark, and that set them down a brand new artistic path: goddess names. “Maeve” was one in all them — and it resonated on twin fronts.
“She is a first-century Irish warrior queen who believes girls are equals,” Thompson says, “and every time I inform that story, I’m going like, ‘Wow. Novel idea.’ She additionally [hailed] from the area of Eire that my grandparents had been from. So I am like, I feel she’s my lady.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Maeve
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Thompson labored with a 3rd company to create the branding design that exists as we speak.
Now, Maeve’s colourful homepage, dynamic with illustrations of waves, a ship and a mermaid, invitations guests to “Include us to a faraway land” earlier than giving strategy to one other show that reintroduces Seattle Chocolate as Maeve, “the place moral meets scrumptious.”
“[It’s]  this actually whimsical [design], and it virtually takes you to a spot of fantasy,” Thompson says. Chocolate itself is all the time an escape, Thompson provides, however Maeve’s new branding affords shoppers one other layer of escapism: replete with “tongue-in-cheek” product descriptions and a enjoyable solid of characters.
“You possibly can construct a complete fantasy world,” Thompson explains. “[The agency] even developed a map for us. We need to blow the doorways off of how chocolate’s ever been marketed earlier than.”
“You need to comply with your intestine since you are setting the course for this particular firm.”
A number of elements have helped Maeve pull off an efficient rebrand to date, in line with Thompson.
First, Thompson made positive to contain groups throughout all the firm within the course of from the very starting. It was essential to get any fears and considerations out within the open so that they could possibly be addressed, Thompson says.
The staff additionally needed to analyze each facet of the then-current product line. The reevaluation led to some adjustments, like swapping the “truffle” designation to “bonbon” and axing sure flavors that had been cumbersome to supply. Permitting ample time to refine the product providing — which took about three years for Maeve — helped lay a strong basis for the rebrand.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of Maeve
Speaking the change to the corporate’s loyal clients was additionally important and typically difficult.
Customers within the Pacific Northwest who’d beloved the chocolate for years felt considerably “betrayed” by the title change, Thompson explains. Maeve has met the “little little bit of detrimental blowback” with a promise to supply the identical high quality product and dedication to its values.
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A vital lesson Thompson’s realized over the course of Maeve’s rebrand — and one she recommends all entrepreneurs take to coronary heart — is simply how essential it’s to hearken to your instincts.
“You need to comply with your intestine since you are setting the course for this particular firm,” Thompson says. “You’re the engine. If you happen to do not belief your self, then you are going to misstep and be mad at your self. If you happen to belief your self, [even if] you comply with your intestine and also you fail, [at least you can say], ‘However that is what I believed was proper.'”